Display device



S. KASS DISPLAY DEVICE May 2, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 24, 1959 FIG.

INVENTOR. SHOLOM KASS $6 Fl G. 2.

q ATTOR N EYS May 2, 1961 s. KAss 2,982,038 DISPLAY DEVICE Filed July 24, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. S H 0 L0 M RA 8 S ATT ;2','s'2,q's8 DISPLAY DEVICE Sholom Ir ians-dermal, Pa., assign'orfl to Fischer &

Porter Company, Hatbo'ro, Pa., a corporationof Pennsylvania I V 7 Filed .Iuly24, 1959, Ser.-No.-- 829,241

' scams. or: 4043' This invention relatesti to display devices? particularly adapted for the display of: numerals',-letters'or other matters under electrical control.v

Various types 'of dis'play devicesare in use-forexhibiting1 numerical or. alphabetical information, and the computer and 'controlfield constitutes-one-of extensive present day use. Considering: first this typeof use, the general desire. is to exhibit numbers-in decimal-form and to this end there are commonly used devices of three=-genera1..types.-; In one of these, arrays oflampsiare' providediillumina'ted in accordance with special codes: to exhibit the: outlines of haustthepossibility of six input channels-whichitheoreti cally would provide: sixty-four characters, and'a further elaboration of themecha'nical aspects of the invent-iommay give riseato-a display device having'wide capabilities so the numerals. Inzanother. arrangement, the numera1s-car-- ried by film 'areas are-selectivelyprojectedby lamps upon a screen. In stillanother arrangement, numerals inthe form of bent wires arezsuperimposed to, constitute selecta-s ble cathodes in'gasrfill'ed tubes. Considering thefaot that in computing apparatusthecomputations are generally carried out in a binary system,.thereris, obviously,- the necessity for providing atranslating matrixof considerablecomplexity between the outputv from the'computer' and the display device in order tosecure' control signals for the display device corresponding to the binary (or binary-decimal): inputs. Furthermore; rather elaborate relay systems are required'to provide the amplification of power necessary for illumination ofthedisplay device.

In accordance with the present invention a display device is providediwhichin itselfrrp rovides in simple electromechanical fashion the translationof a; binary type of input intoraadecimal or evemfur'ther. extended-.outputr Furthermore, devices in" accordance with thepresentinvention.require-verylittle control; power, and may be operated directly from the outputs of low power transistor. circuits. (It may be hereremarked thatwhilesubstantial power may-be involved: for-the bright illumination of the display device,. one or more electric bulbs: may-be. con-1 tinuously. illuminated directly: from a'& power line and Patented May;2,; 1961.

as to-be possibly used, in advertising particularly, for the display of silhouettes or even fairly elaborate pictures.

Considered generally, display devices intaccordnace with the invention make the most effective useofinput appa-' rat'us' of any given degree of complexity. As will become:

obvious, perforated tapes or multi-channel magneticxtapes may be read to provide message inputs for use'iniadverqtising or the like, whileinthe'case of: numerical computer or similar apparatus the available outputs are directly applicable tn the display control. w

The objectsof the invention have'to-dowith the-attain-w mentof the foregoing: and the general objects as well as specific ones relatingto details of construction and operation will become apparent from the following description; read in conjunction wi th the accompanying drawings, in: which: t I Figure 1 is a diagrammatic front elevation of. the zoperating parts of a simple display device provided in: accord-- ance with the invention; I

Figure-2 is a horizontalsection with various parts broken! away showing structural features of the display arranger ment of'Figure 1; v 5 Figure 3 is a wiring diagram showing the electromaga neticcontrol arrangement responsive to four input channels;

Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the principles, involvedin layout 'of displays-and operation;

Figure 5- is a diagram illustrating the fashion in'wh'ich: maximum'use ism'ade of available space as applied particularly to a display devicecapab le of-exhibiting-thirtysix different characters;.

Figure 6 is a diagram similar to Figure '5 butlshowing.

I the possibility of utilizing other: than. straight line: dis-i require for-their operation no; control relays or the likes) ten decimal digits; a decimaLpoinLplus' andminus signs,-

a dollar mark, and a blankto: exhibitzonly a'space. In a more elaborate form involving six; input channels-there can be provided a. display device-capableof exhibiting thirty-six different characters. which; as willbeevident, sutfices for-the display of;the ent-ire English alphabet in addition to :the ten decimal numerals, and if zero and theletter O are the samein shape, there m-ayalso be exhibited a blank.

"l be -last; consideration. gives. rise to the possibility. of

use not onlysin technical. apparatus but; for advertising,

since an assembly;of'devices maygspell ouuanydesired i message. The arrangement just mentioned does not explacements of masks; Figure 7 is a mechanical linkage diagram illustratingparticularly an arrangementfor providing: a display: de vicecapable of exhibiting thirty-six ditferent'characters;

Figure 8 is a diagram indicating electrical connections suitable for'transient pulse settingsand for *rieadoutc. Before discussing the theory of operation audits :general' aspects, the invention'ma'y be best madegclearby, first referringito Figuresl and-Z-exhibitinga simple arrangementcapableof providing sixteen different characters utilizing four input channels. To avoid complexity of illustration; mounting, guiding: and :other partswwh-ichv are subject to obvious and: Wide choice are omitted,;there being primarilywillustrated only the operating. elements: of a single unit or device; It will, further, beun'de'rstood; that such devices are designed tobe associated sideby; side. to represent multiple digit'numbers; words; or; the

, like, each device providing a choice of characters'to be exhibited in a particularfixedposition, such: as a single order of a decimal numbeni Indicated at 2 and 4 are a pair of plates: which are arranged in close parallelism and which are-to be moved to various relative positions. These plates may bezofw thin sheet metal perforated as hereafteruindicated or maybe in the form ofJphotogra'phicfilm'or plates provided with light-transmitting openingswhich: may be' formed, aswill later be obvious, by a photographic'exposure and development process. V

The plates 2 and 4' areguidedfontheir-relativemove ments in close parallel: proximityby means not shown in, detail but which may take .the. form ofrsuitable guide slotsprovided in ahousing. 6 which is, indicated. in Figure 2. ml which is provided with a, display opening' cover'efd by a gl'assor plastic window indicated at7.

The plate 2 is provided along two of its edges with I slots 8 and 10, .shown as arranged at right angleswith each other, in which are received the elongated ends of electro-magnet armatures 12 and '14. As indicated, the

slots 8 and are longer than the portions of thearmatures. received therein, so that asIone armature moves the plate 2 mayslide on'the othertarmature to be located in.a definite position with the movement of the; plate 2 beingparallel to itself without rotation; Simi- Each of the electromagnet assemblies may be of theform conventionally used for relays, though in the present instance there is no necessity for the provision of relay contacts. The several windings are energized as indicatedin Figure 3 from separate binary input channels 32, 34, '36 and 38, 'which maybe considered, by way of example, .to correspond 'to binary inputs of the orders 0, 1, 2 and 3 as indicated at the right of 'Figure 3. The armatures may be formed of spring material or may be separately spring mounted and when the electromagnets are deen'ergized restagainst stops indicated at 40 which, if desired, may'be adjustable to secure accurate alignment of the plates. When the electromagnets are energized their armatures are brought to definite positions, and it the electromagnets the plates 2 and 4 may be located in any one of sixteen relative positions. The array here is rectangular. It is only relative positions of the plates which are of significance, and with a more elaborate control system it will be evident that one of the plates might be stationary and movements might be applied only to the other. However, for maximum simplicity, and the direct utilization of the binary signals on four channels it is advantageous to use aniarrangement such as described in which each plate.has two freedoms of movement'trans'v'erse to each other. By having the respective horizontal movements applied to the' two plates of different extents, as shown and described, the relative 7 horizontal positions are four in number. The same is true of the vertical positions. .Of course, one of the plates might have only unit movements imparted to it in both directions, while the other plate might have double unit movements, applied to it in both directions.

The situation involved in exhibiting characters is illustrated in -'Figure4; Initially assuming that thefront plate 2 has light-transmitting areas or openings regularly disposed thereon as indicated at 56, it will now be apparent that in view of the operations described a particular opening such as that at theextreme upper left of will be evident, therefore, that each of the plates 2 and 4 occupies at any time for any individual component of motion either one or the other of two fixed positions.

Illumination is to be provided by transmission throughaligned openings in the plates 2 and 4, and for this purpose the illuminating arrangement illustrated in Figure 2 may be used in small units. Behind the plates there is ablock of plastic such as Lucite capable of freely transmitting light, which has bevelled sides 42 desirably frosted and backed up with reflecting coating so as to make maximum use of the available light. In a socket .44 formed in the center of the block 42 there is located a lamp 46 which furnishes the illumination for the unit. The lower portion of the socket 44 may be frosted to prevent rays from passing directly from the filament the figure will have a relative movement with respect. to

the rear plate to bring it into any one of the sixteen positions indicated'at-58 by the small xs, one of these positions being that illustrating the opening itself. Lighttransmitting openings are provided in the rear plate 4 to correspond selectively, in accordance with the character to be displayed, with the various positions which may be assumed by each of the openings 56. For illustrative purposes, Figure 4 shows the numeral 2 in chain lines as it would beoutlined by coincident openings in the two plates when, assuming in the discussion of relative movement, the rear plate to be fixed and the front plate to have its openings in the positions illustrated at 56. The back plate would, for this condition have openings as indicated at 60 so that for this through the openings, and it will be evident that with suitable frosting there may be secured substantially uniform illumination over the display area which is indicated at 47 in Figure 1 and which corresponds to the display opening in the housing 6. For larger units or more intense illumination several lamps may be provided in obvious fashion. In the ordinary use of the device the lamps may be continuously lighted, though, if desired they may be deenergized to provide a blank indication.

Using thin plates it is easily possible to secure readability through angles exceeding oif center. Still greater angles of visibility may be secured by providing a beaded window at 7 or by inserting beads in the front plate or by equivalent light spreading means.

Movements are imparted to the plates 2 and 4 as follows:

The armature 14 when energized effects a displacement of plate 2 to the right through a unit distance represented by the vector 48. The armature 12 when energized moves the plate 2 downwardly through a distance corresponding to two units as indicated by the vector '50. The armature 20, when energized, moves plate 4 to the left a distance of two units as indicated by the vector 54. The armature 22, on energization, moves the plate 4 upwardly through a unit distance as indicated by the vector 52. It may be remarked that these vectors are enlarged in scale for simplicity since in the scale of construction in Figure 1 the movements would actually be,quite small, though of single unit and double unit extents as described. The result of the foregoing is, obviously,.that by selective .energization of relative position of the plates light would pass through the aligned openings represented as unshaded in Figure 4, the shaded openings corresponding to positions at which the rear plate would have no openings, thereby occulting the light. i

For purposes of further illustration, there is also indicated in Figure 4 the display of the numeral 5. Assuming that this is to be displayed when a relative position corresponds to that indicated at 64 in the array 58, the back plate would be provided with openings centered at the points 66 arranged along the dotted line 68 outlining the numeralS. As will now be evident, the openings 56 should be of such diameter that in the successive relative positions they-would not overlap; i.e., their diameters should be slightly lessthan the unit steps of movement imparted to the plates relativelyyto each other. Under these conditions there will be no appearance of ghosts" of characters which are not to be displayed when the input signals are such, as to display any character. While equally spaced openings 56 are illustrated as provided in the front plate, considerationof the style of the characters to be exhibited may indicate a more advantageous distribution-of these openings to give rise to a more desirable shape of the-characters. For example, considering the ten digital numerals, the only one which extends to the furthest lower right hand corner of the display area is the numeral 2. Consequently, there would be some freedom of choice of the position of the lower right hand opening to provide, for example, a slight upturn of the bottom stroke of the 2. Artistic considerations of this type may be given to secure the best shaping of the numerals (or letters), the only requirement being that in the range of movement of any opening it should not infringe adversely onthe required opening position of another numeral so as to give rise to an illuminated .spot which should be dark.

to this plate correspond to the two directions ofmoveme'ntof the other, the lines joining the pivot points 80' and 82 and the corresponding pivot points at the right being at an angleof 60 with respect to each other. The result, therefore,'is the attainment of relative movement as diagrammed in Figure 5, or, more precisely, as diagrammed in Figure 6 involving slight curvature of the movements. The six solenoids involved receive binary signals on six input channels, and with the arrangement disclosed give rise to the thirty-six relative positions of the plates. It will be obvious that if the incremental movements applied are greater, advantage may be taken of the full sixty-four possible relative positions controlled by six input chanels. This would be accomplished, for example, by having the movement of solenoid 102 twice that of solenoid 104, and by having the plunger of solenoid 122 moving four unit lengths instead of three. However, utilization of such a system necessarily requires a still larger minimum permissible spacing between openings, representing less etficient use of the displayarea. For practical purposes, it is, therefore, suflicient to provide for thirty-six possible relative positions to provide a very complete numerical and arithemetical system.

The foregoing assumes that all the display units in a single display assembly are the same. However, by exerting some censorship on the complete freedom of message display, there may be provided display units having different sets of possible characters to be-inter-- changeably plugged in in accordance with messages desired to be conveyed. For example, one of such display units might well contain the numerical digits and, for example, two-thirds of the alphabet including the most frequently occurring letters. It might then contain in addition only certain of the less frequent letters but be provided also with punctuation marks or the like. Another display unit might contain the same basic matters of numerals and most frequently used letters but a difierent content of the more infrequently used letters. With a limited number of such display units, analysis of an advertising message may reveal that by the choice of particular units a message could be fully conveyed but perhaps necessitating a slight shift of an array of words to make sure that a pair of infrequently used letters not on a single display device would not occurin the same position.

It will now be clear that the control devices may be quite simple in view of the utilization of a binarytype of input involving a minimum number of channels. It is, of course, not necessary that in the case of numerical representation in decimal form that the decimal number should have the same magnitude as represented by the binary combination involved in its control. In most computing apparatus this would, of course, be desirable forsimplicity, but if alphabetical displays are involved that situation need not be taken into account. The Signals delivered through the control channels may be derived photoelectrically from perforated tapes, through feelers of such tapes, from magnetic records, or the like.

the plates may have the form of relays in structure, it becomes possible not only to set the display device by means of short duration pulses but also to provide fori electrical readout. An arrangement for doing this is illustrated in Figure 8 wherein the windings 134 and 136 may be typical of the electromagnet windings such as 24, 26, etc. shown in Figures 2 and 3. The lower terminals of these windings are connected to ground through a relay contact 138 which may be opened momentarily for reset purposes by energization of the relay winding 140. The windings 134, 136, etc. have similar connections and con sequently only those associatedwith winding 134 need be described. The armature indicated at 142 which has mechanical functions as heretofore described may be. arranged to engage a contact 144 connected to a terminal supply source 146 to provide a holding relay action. The movable switch element 142 may, of course, be insulated from the mechanical parts and be provided as a separate spring. leaf on an armature such as 14. Connection is made between 142 and a terminal 148. to which setting pulses may be delivered in any suitable fashion. A connection 150 extends to any suitable readout apparatus.

In operation for providing a new indication there may be first emitted -a reset pulse to the winding 140 to open the contact at 138, thereby deenergizing all of the windings 134, 136, etc. Followingreclosing of contact 138 selective pulsesmay be delivered at '148 to energize the windings selectively, these being held energized by the holding relay action. A display is thus provided which is permanent until resetting again occurs. In this arrangement the pulses introduced. at 148 may be of short duration. Since under the holding action the'relay arms 142 are selectively energized readouts may be taken as indicated at' 150. v 7

It will be evident that various changes in details of construction and mode of operation may be made without departing from the invention as defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A display device comprising a pair of plate members guided for relative face-to-face sliding movements, their faces being closely adjacentto each other, at least two means for eifecting relative step movements between said plates in approximately the same direction,fone of said means imparting movement of an extent substantially difierent from that imparted by the other, at least two additional means for effecting relative step movements between said plates in approximately another direction transverse to the first mentioned direction, one of the last mentioned additional means imparting movement of an extent substantially difierent from that imparted by the other of said last mentioned additional means, thereby to eflEect by said stepmovements and absence of such movements a two dimensional array of relative positions of said plates, said plates being provided with light-transmitting areas arranged to be brought into coincidence selectively in' the difierent relative positions of said plates, and means directing light through said coinciding light transmitting areas.

2. A display device according to claim 1 in which both of said plates are movable.

3. A display device according to claiml in which said directions are substantially at right angles with respect to each other.

4. A display device according to claim 1 in which said directions are substantially at 60 with respect to each other.

5. A display device according to claim 1 in which said means for efiecting relative movement are electromag-, netic. 6. A display device according to claim 1 in which the means for eifecting relative movements are electromagsa'id'directions produce at least three difierent step movements.

2,790,088 Shive Apr. 23, 1957. 

